Technicolor-owned creative studio MPC collected a prestigious Gold Lion at Cannes over the weekend, the only studio to have been awarded a Gold in the VFX category, which can often have a number of winners.

Assassins Creed “Black Flag: Defy” was awarded the top honor in the VFX Film Craft category on Saturday night. As well as VFX by MPC, the spot was conceived by agency Sid Lee Paris and directed by Adam Berg through Stink.

The brutal cinematic seamlessly blends epic live action with complex VFX techniques as ships burn and men are mercilessly slain in the 90-second spot.

The ambition was to capture much of the action in-camera and then integrate bespoke and highly complex VFX to create a gritty, yet realistic spot that keeps the authenticity of the game intact. MPC’s VFX team, led by Franck Lambertz and Fabian Frank utilized the full spectrum of creative VFX disciplines to craft the film.

Source: MPC

Jennifer Wolfe is Director of News & Content at Animation World Network.